| Merikoski Power Station | |
|---|---|
 | |
  Location of Merikoski Power Station in Finland | |
| Official name | Merikosken voimalaitos |
| Country | Finland |
| Location | Oulu |
| Coordinates | 65°01′22″N25°28′24″E / 65.02278°N 25.47333°E Coordinates: 65°01′22″N25°28′24″E / 65.02278°N 25.47333°E |
| Purpose | Power |
| Status | Operational |
| Construction began | 1940 |
| Opening date | 1948 |
| Owner(s) | Oulun Energia |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Impounds | Oulujoki |
| Height | 11 m [1] |
| Spillways | 3 |
| Spillway type | gates |
| Power Station | |
| Installed capacity | 39 MW [1] |
| Annual generation | 289 GWh (2012) [1] |
Merikoski Power Plant is a hydroelectric power station and a dam in the Koskikeskus district in Oulu, Finland. The plant is owned by the Oulun Energia municipal enterprise of the city of Oulu.
Koskikeskus is a neighbourhood in the Tuira area in the city of Oulu, Finland. The neighbourhood is located in the estuary of the river Oulujoki. The Tuira Bridges in Koskikeskus connect the city centre and Tuira neighbourhoods. The first bridges through the delta were built in late 1860s.
Oulu is a city and municipality of 203,750 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in Northern Finland and the fifth most populous city in the country. There are no larger cities in the world, apart from Murmansk Russia, that are more northerly than Oulu. It is also considered one of Europe's "living labs", where residents experiment with new technology at a community-wide scale.
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a country in Northern Europe bordering the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Bothnia, and Gulf of Finland, between Norway to the north, Sweden to the northwest, and Russia to the east. Finland is a Nordic country and is situated in the geographical region of Fennoscandia. The capital and largest city is Helsinki. Other major cities are Espoo, Vantaa, Tampere, Oulu and Turku.
Contents
Construction of the power plant was started in 1940, but electricity generation for national grid was not started until 1948. The construction was delayed due to Second World War, although soviet prisoners of war were used as labour during the war. [2] The power station building has been designed by architect Bertel Strömmer and the master plan of the area by architect Alvar Aalto. [3]
Bertel Strömmer was a Finnish architect. Strömmer worked as Tampere City Architect years 1918–53 and most of his work is located in Tampere. Strömmer designed both private and public buildings. Strömmer's most famous works include the Grand Hotel Tammer, the Tampere bus station and the town hall in Kemi.
Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware, as well as sculptures and paintings, though he never regarded himself as an artist, seeing painting and sculpture as "branches of the tree whose trunk is architecture." Aalto's early career runs in parallel with the rapid economic growth and industrialization of Finland during the first half of the twentieth century and many of his clients were industrialists; among these were the Ahlström-Gullichsen family. The span of his career, from the 1920s to the 1970s, is reflected in the styles of his work, ranging from Nordic Classicism of the early work, to a rational International Style Modernism during the 1930s to a more organic modernist style from the 1940s onwards. What is typical for his entire career, however, is a concern for design as a Gesamtkunstwerk, a total work of art; whereby he – together with his first wife Aino Aalto – would design not just the building, but give special treatments to the interior surfaces and design furniture, lamps, and furnishings and glassware. His furniture designs are considered Scandinavian Modern, in the sense of a concern for materials, especially wood, and simplification but also technical experimentation, which led to him receiving patents for various manufacturing processes, such as bent wood. The Alvar Aalto Museum, designed by Aalto himself, is located in what is regarded as his home city Jyväskylä.
